February 28, 2014 ~ Luc & Jac's 16th Birthday Party

February 28, 2014 ~ Luc & Jac's 16th Birthday Party

Luc and Jac are 16 now, it's crazy!! They aren't my little brothers anymore (since they are taller than me). I was able to go to their 16th birthday part for about 30 minutes before I had to go to bed because of an early clinical for school the next day. It was drizzling a little bit but that didn't stop them from having a blast with basketball, ping-poing, swimming, fire-pit and dancing with a DJ. It was a great turn-out! They had invitations that they handed out to everyone, that Chelsea made, and then had the invitations made into t-shirts! Luc & Jac then wore the t-shirt at the party. It was really cool, so I had to include a couple of pictures.

February 25, 2014 ~ Lucas' Birthday Dinner

February 25, 2014 ~ Lucas' Birthday Dinner

I know it is 10 days after Luca's birthday but we finally went out for his birthday! We went to a Japanese restaurant named Kumi in the  Mandalay Bay Hotel. Japanese food, especially sushi, is Lucas' favorite type of food and so he really enjoyed it! It helped that it was free, once again the perks of his job, all we had to pay for was the tip. The food was really really good, they even had Mochi Ice Cream Balls, one of Lucas' favorite Japanese desserts. 

February 14, 2014 ~ Valentines Day!

February 14, 2014 ~ Valentines Day!

Usually having valentines day fall on a Friday means that you actually get to go out to eat and celebrate...but that isn't what it means when you both have work and school. Lucas had work in the morning and then his internship at night. I had work in the morning and then went straight to class after work then to the hospital for pre-clinical. Lucas and I both ended up having 12-13 hour days. We both had busy days but we managed to show each other how much we love each other. Lucas went out of his way to make me feel special...he spoiled me! He surprised me with a sugar cookie in the morning before I ran off to work and at the end of the day he surprised me with flowers! Yes, flowers! I got him a huge Reese's peanut butter cup in the shape of a heart and made sure he knew how much I loved him before I left for work. I am so lucky to have found such an amazing man to be my husband! He makes me feel special all the time, is a strong worthy priesthood holder, constantly trying to improv himself and learn more and he is such a hard worker. 

February 9, 2014 ~ Birthday & Valentines Celebration

February 9, 2014 ~ Birthday & Valentines Celebration

February is the month of birthday's in our family. Dad's birthday is February 9th. Diana's birthday is February 10th. Lucas' birthday is February 15th. Luc and Jac's birthday is February 21st. This year we celebrated Luca's birthday and valentines day with the Tielemans on Sunday February 9th and then went over to the Hoer's household to celebrate Dad's birthday. It was a really fun day filled with family and fun activities. 

We did a Valentines Day swop with the Tielemans Family.

 Lucas always makes the BEST birthday cards so I just had to take a picture of one. This is one he made for my dad's birthday.

January 23, 2014 ~ Golf Expo

January 23, 2014 ~ Golf Expo

Here are some thoughts about the Golf Expo in Orlando Florida from Lucas.

"Sam, Dad and I all went to the Orlando Expo in Florida. It was one of the best trips I have taken with my dad and brother. Money was tight for all of us so we stayed at a Days Inn that was close to the convention center. 

The hotel was a little dirty and my dad found a couple of roaches in the bathtub. Being in the hospitality business, I told him that if he complains about it, he would probably get a free night stay out of it. So, my dad being dad, went to the managers and complained. And what do you know….we got a free night stay out of it.

Every morning the shuttle bus would stop by our hotel and take us to the convention center for the big golf expo. We had a pretty good located booth in the expo. We had a pretty good flow of people that would walk by our booth. Sam and I had brochures that we would actively be passing out to people as they were walking by. We found that when people would see our booth, they wouldn’t really know what it was about, so they would keep walking by. Sam and I took the initiative to tell them about our company and passed out our free decal as a gift. 

There was a booth real close by that would pass out these mini pizzas and another booth that would pass out these mini corndog type stuff. Of course we brought like a sandwich for lunch but these booths were our lifesavers throughout the day. 

Occasionally when things were slow, we would walk around the expo ourselves and take a look at all the things that different companies are doing.

After each expo we would all go out to eat together. We found a great Mexican restaurant that had endless chips, so we definitely took advantage of that. 

Overall I had an absolute blast. After all was said and done, we had a few leads to try to start something. But what I learned most from my dad is taking risks. My father is a risk taker. Sometimes they pay out, sometimes they don’t. But you can’t just live your life wondering “what if” and never do anything. When my dad believes in something, he does everything in his power to make it be successful. He has “reached out” (dad hates that phrase) to so many people that I thought would be impossible to get a hold of, and he would somehow talk with them or get a meeting with them. My dad is a complete success and has taught me to go for things, even if people doubt you."             -Lucas

January 14, 2014 ~ Lucas' Helicopter Ride!

January 14, 2014 ~ Lucas' Helicopter Ride!

I wasn't on the Helicopter ride unfortunately and so Lucas will write this post.

As a concierge, I have a lot of perks. One of those perks is you get to try out all the tours you want, so that you can properly sell them to guests. I was able to take the grand canyon helicopter ride to the West Rim. It was the first time I have ever been in a helicopter and it was a blast. It was me, Divina Villavicencia and Serena Garrett. We had a great time! I only knew them 2 and the other 4 people were strangers. We got to wear these headphones in the helicopter that allowed us to talk to each other. The only catch was, if I say something, EVERYONE can hear it. You can’t pick and choose who you want to hear you.

The first part of the trip I was in the back. We flew over the Hoover Dam and headed over to the West Rim Grand Canyon. It was about a 45 minute flight just to get there.

We landed at the bottom of the canyon and spent about 30 minutes there. We had a light snack and some drinks. It was really calm and peaceful there at the bottom and very enjoyable. Most of the people hung around each other talking, eating and drinking, but I was able to kind of hike down like 5 minutes and just enjoy being at the bottom. It was a very calm and serene experience. It is so nice to just sit and enjoy nature sometimes. Plus, it isn’t everyday that you get to be at the bottom of one of the 7 wonders of the world. Granted, I have been to the grand canyon like 50 times because of my Japanese tour job, but this was the first time being at the bottom of the canyon. Although it was nice being at the bottom, the South rim is hands down the best place to visit the Grand Canyon. It is so much larger and grander than the West rim.

On the way back to Vegas, I was able to sit up in the front. That was a blast! Taking off is the best because helicopters tip their nose down as the accelerate up into the air. As we were flying, I asked the pilot to nose dive because I heard that is really fun to experience. Obviously, it would be a controlled nose drive but as soon I said that, everyone started freaking out. (remember, everyone hears what you say). They got way extremely nervous and everyone was saying No! Don’t do it!- the pilot said, for safety, we cant do that. Pretty lame if you ask me.

As we were getting close to Vegas, we did a mini strip helicopter tour over Vegas. It was nice, flying in air, right next to all of the hotels. I really enjoyed that part.

Overall, it was a great time and once in a life-time experience. The best part, this $540 per person tour, was FREE!

January 12, 2014~ Anna's Mission Farewell

January 12, 2014 ~ Anna's Mission Farewell 

The sisters at Anna's mission farewell part after her mission farewell talk.

The ward had a farewell dinner for Anna for FHE on the Monday night before she left. 

 Anna is going to be such a cute missionary! She had a mini photo-shoot before she left. We went to sushi before my parents took Anna up to the MTC. Anna entered the MTC January 29th 2014. Bryant entered the MTC January 29th also! I don't know why I remembered that from so long ago but I did.

My parents were able to take Anna to the MTC. Anna got a whole new wardrobe for being a sister missionary and new luggage. Anna is so fashionable and will be so fashionable on her mission too! Anna is going to do great things in the Colorado Spring mission!

Here is a little bit of Anna's first blog post as a sister missionary!!

            I still can't believe I AM A MISSIONARY!!!!
 The MTC is great. The first day and a half we had so much information thrown at us. 
They shoved this information down our throats almost as fast as Luc and Jacob
 shove bagel bites down their throats. But I feel like I kinda have the hang of things now.
 P day is saturday and thank goodness for that! It's nice to have some time to breathe today. 
So  on our first night, I was feeling rather grubby so I went to take a shower. 
First off...it was like the Motab was in the shower room. A whole medley of 
hymns sung by sisters in the showers. It was cracking me up! Especially 
when two sisters next to eachother would start singing the same song and 
then start harmonizing! Like what?! I have never had such a spiritually 
uplifting shower. So everything is going great, and then one of the sisters 
in my room comes in calling for me..."Sister Hoer! Sister Hoer! Did you 
bring your room key??" Yeah. We were all locked out of our room on the 
first night. We all went to shower and get ready for bed, but none of us 
brought our keys! Go figure. But I laughed so hard. Seriously EVERYTHING 
becomes funny when you're a missionary. The silliest little things will be 
hilarious to me! The other day our teacher said we would have about 30 
minutes left as he looked at his wrist..but he wasn't wearing a watch. I 
was laughing SO hard! He had to ask me if I was okay. I was a little 
embarrassed. But it was great. The littlest things will make us all laugh so hard.